Free Republic

More than 3,000 pro-Israel evangelical Christians will be in town next week for a "Washington/Israel summit" to push the Bush administration toward stronger support for the Jewish state. Starting with a banquet July 18 at the Hilton Washington and visits to Capitol Hill the next morning, the inaugural gathering of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) will showcase a deeper cooperation between evangelical Christians and Jews in the face of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's suggestion in October, often reiterated since, that Israel "be wiped off the map." Organizers say Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, retired Israeli defense chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon...

Egypt's President Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah, who met this week, issued a joint call against Ehud Olmert's planned transfer of vast areas of Judea and Samaria to the control of Hamas. The two leaders met in Aqaba, the Jordanian port city adjacent to Eilat, and warned that one-sided solutions will not help in promoting the peace process or regional stability. They said that Israel must negotiate not with Hamas, but with Abu Mazen, the leader of the Fatah organization. Middle Eastern affairs expert Dr. David Bukai of Haifa University notes the irony, explaining that Egypt and Jordan are more...

US director Steven Spielberg discusses his controversial new film "Munich," which deals with the aftermath of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. In an interview with DER SPIEGEL he talks about the moral aspects of dealing with terrorism and responds to critics who claim he's betrayed the Jewish people. SPIEGEL: Mr. Spielberg, can you remember the hours of the Olympic massacre? Do you know where you were when you heard the terrible news? Spielberg: Yes, I do. I was watching a "Wide World of Sports" live broadcast from Munich when the news suddenly flashed in, and the...

Israel has bowed to US pressure to cancel an arms deal with China and will impose tighter controls on its weapons exports in general, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reports. The dispute with the United States centres on Israel's sale of Harpy attack drones and other advanced technology to China which the Pentagon fears could tilt the balance of power and make it difficult to defend Taiwan. Agreeing to US demands, Israel will not return Harpy spare parts that China sent to their Israeli manufacturer for upgrading, Haaretz said. Israel, the newspaper said, also accepted a US demand to implement the 34-nation...

Saif al-Islam, the son of Libya's leader Muammar al-Qadhafi, has denied recent news reports about his meeting a member of the Israeli Knesset on the sidelines of an international parliamentary conference in Athens. He has said, however, that Libya no longer considers Israel a security threat nor is his country in a confrontation with Israel. In an exclusive interview with Aljazeera.net on Thursday, Saif al-Islam described the recent news reports as malicious rumours being spread by "some Arab countries" to spite Libya because of his country's latest political successes (in breaking its international isolation). Saif al-Islam is al-Qaddafi's second eldest...

slamic Jew-hatred - it's in the Quran. Is this surprising? No. And it's proof of the nefarious convergence of leftism and antisemitism. Labour is left. Interesting note: it was a blogger who discovered the hate-filled post. Bloggers are doing the work the media won't. "Labour MP forced to resign after calling for Israel to be 'relocated' to the US," By Greg Heffer, Political Reporter, The Express, April 26, 2016: A LABOUR MP has been forced to resign her role as an aide to shadow chancellor John McDonnell after supporting calls for Israel to be 'relocated' to the United States. Labour...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Peter (The Gospel According to Mark) 12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. 15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those...

A groundbreaking Israeli security system could have helped French authorities prevent the Paris massacre last November - but authorities balked at the deal under pressure from the anti-Israel boycott movement. Speaking to Fox News, an Israeli counter-terrorism source with intimate knowledge of both the software involved and the deal itself said that after the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attack the previous January an Israeli company offered to provide French authorities with special terrorist-tracking software, which could well have enabled them to flag the ISIS terrorist network operating under their noses. But although the French were initially very keen on...

Russia has resumed bombing moderate opposition fighters in Syria, a U.S. military officer from Baghdad told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday. "We have seen them begin operations again in that region," Air Force Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten, the U.S.-led coalition's deputy commander for operations and intelligence, told Fox News. President Obama called Russian President Vladimir Putin last week asking him to help "press" Syria to end its airstrikes, according to a White House statement. The strikes appeared to violate the ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia in February. "The two leaders committed to intensify their efforts to shore...

Labour in fresh anti-Semitic storm: Muslim MP quits as aide to John McDonnell after sharing toxic Facebook post which suggested Israel should be moved to US Naz Shah today apologised for 'offence caused' by her Facebook post The Bradford West MP shared the claim and added supportive comments The post was made in 2014 before Ms Shah became an MP in the Commons Labour has been rocked by a series of anti-Semitism rows in recent weeks Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly urged to speak out clearly against abuse Labour MP Naz Shah today apologised and quit as an aide to John McDonnell...

The White House is reportedly planning to accept Israeli demands for increased military aid, following pressure by the US Senate to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding laying out US support to Israel for the next decade. With the current Memorandum of Understanding set to expire in 2018, Israel has been pressuring the White House to enlarge the annual aid package from $3.1 billion to between $4-4.5 billion. Israel has stated that it must increase its military spending to cope with growing threats from ISIS and the Iranian regime following last year’s nuclear deal. …

While the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has done little to hide its malicious anti-Israel hatred, the movement hitherto has succeeded in maintaining the appearance of legitimacy, presenting itself as the peaceful alternative to terrorism. Despite rhetoric which pro-Israel activists have noted signals a rejection of Jewish statehood per se and draws upon the kind of terrorist propaganda disseminated by Hamas and the PLO, no clear link tying BDS to supporters of terror organizations could be found. Last week, however, a former terrorism finance analyst for the US Treasury Department offered testimony to congress suggesting connections between the BDS movement...

By Wallace Bruschweiler and William Palumbo The lies from this administration are well-known and numerous. Among only some of the most infamous: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. ISIS is a non-threat, the “JV team.” The economy is in great shape after years of sustained recovery, and unemployment is at a de minimis 5%. Daily life over the past seven and a half years and the six o’clock news will relieve you of these fictions. The Barack Hussein Obama administration’s deceit is deployed deliberately to assuage our deepest fears concerning the state of our country and...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Peter (The Gospel According to Matthew) 18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name...

I don’t know why progressives hate Israel. But it is undeniable that they do. There is a palpable contempt, the anti-Semitism of our day, bigotry dressed up as compassion. They talk about Palestinians, and identify with their cause, and you can almost hear them cheering the suicide vests. Whether from the college classroom or the black pulpit or the progressive stump speech, there is a strident anti-Israeli theme to the prattlings of the American left. And protests to the contrary notwithstanding, it is inseparable from a contempt for the people and religion of Israel. To my ear, in all honesty,...

An Italian academic appeal to boycott Israeli universities succeeded in obtaining 336 signatures. Of these teachers and researchers, a tenth come from the University of Bologna. But in this oldest university in Europe, no one has shown enough concern to raise a moral issue about the big deal that the Alma Mater Studiorum of Bologna has just signed with Saudi Arabia. Not only that, but some of the protagonists of this academic pact appear in the appeal against the Israeli teachers. It should have been enough to read the report of Freedom House on Saudi universities to figure that maybe...

At a facility in Judea of UNRWA, the UN body tasked with caring for "Palestinian refugees," a festive ceremony was held on Monday honoring Abd al-Hamid Abu Srour, the 19-year-old Hamas terrorist who exactly a week ago bombed a bus in southeastern Jerusalem. Journalist David Bedein, director of the Jerusalem-based Israel Resource News Agency as well as the Center for Near East Policy Research, told Arutz Sheva about the UN event to honor the terrorist who conducted the first bus bombing of the current terror wave, in which he died while wounding 15 victims. The investigative journalist revealed that Israeli...

Investigative journalist reveals UNRWA schools hold terror celebrations, Israel ignores and blocks US law against terror indoctrination. At a facility in Judea of UNRWA, the UN body tasked with caring for "Palestinian refugees," a festive ceremony was held on Monday honoring Abd al-Hamid Abu Srour, the 19-year-old Hamas terrorist who exactly a week ago bombed a bus in southeastern Jerusalem. Journalist David Bedein, director of the Jerusalem-based Israel Resource News Agency as well as the Center for Near East Policy Research, told Arutz Sheva about the UN event to honor the terrorist who conducted the first bus bombing of the...

TEL AVIV – The U.S. is cosponsoring an Israeli-invented tunnel detection system that could prevent drug smugglers and illegal migrants from cross-border passage with Mexico, ISRAEL21c reported. The technology, which is being heralded as the underground Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, was behind the IDF’s recent discovery of a 1.5 mile-long Hamas terror tunnel from Gaza and into Israeli territory. The U.S. has earmarked $120 million over the next three years to help develop the system, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, other anti-infiltration innovations include a counter-tunnel barrier along the Israel-Gaza border that “will also feature a state-of-the-art fence, complete...

Poll shows Israelis give mixed marks on Trump and Hillary, believe next president will be better for Israel than Obama. While neither party has settled on a nominee, and with the Republican nomination process still very much in the air, Israelis are certain about one thing - the next President of the United States cannot be worse than Barack Obama. According to a TNS Teleseker poll publicized on Sunday, Israelis are generally optimistic that President Obama's successor will be better for Israel than the incumbent, whose pursuit of the Iran nuclear deal and diplomatic dust-ups with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin...